Nollywood actress Ade wins N30m suit against Google over Dino Melaye dating reports

Nollywood actress Adunni Ade has announced that she won a ₦30 million court judgment against Google over publications that falsely linked her romantically to former Kogi senator Dino Melaye.

The actress disclosed the development in an Instagram post, sharing a copy of the court judgment with the caption, “Adunni Ade Vs Google. Not every war requires a response. Some require a courtroom. Unto the next.”

According to the judgment delivered by Justice I.O. Harrison of the Lagos High Court on July 9, 2025, Google was ordered to pay Ade ₦30 million in general damages and remove the offending publications from Google Search and YouTube.

Ade had filed the suit against Google and Meta on July 11, 2024, seeking ₦100 million in damages over two online publications.

The reports, which linked her to Melaye, were titled “How Dino Melaye used fake Patek Watch to woo and knack Actress Adunni Ade back, front and center” and “Actress Adunni Ade engages in heated exchange with famous Instagram blog after being listed among six celebrities to have dated Dino Melaye.”

The actress argued that the publications were false, misleading and defamatory, violated her constitutional right to privacy and caused her emotional and psychological distress.

Court documents showed that Ade later withdrew the case against Meta in April 2025 after the company raised a preliminary objection, leading to the dismissal of the suit against it.

However, the court ruled against Google, holding that the violation arose from the association of Ade’s name and photograph with the disputed publications.

In addition to awarding ₦30 million in damages, the court directed Google to remove Ade’s name and photograph from the articles and take down the publications from its platforms.

The judgment comes months after Ade secured another legal victory in which the Lagos High Court awarded her ₦20 million in damages in a separate privacy violation suit against a Nigerian news platform and a writer over a report linking her to Dino Melaye.